New Horizons – Humble Beginnings

For those of you experienced with A Tempest Season’s early incarnations, welcome back! For those of you just tuning in, we hope you’ll enjoy your stay with us and have as much fun playing ATS as we had creating it.

I remember my first experience with a RPG. I was pretty young, and I was begging a friend’s older brother to let us play Dungeons and Dragons. After many temper tantrums, name calling and overall diaper pooping, I was allowed to join in on the festivities.

I don’t have all the details, but I remember being shuffled through a quick character creation process and immediately came face-to-face with a red dragon; it promptly took a flaming dump on my face.

I was dead…

I left the game pretty irritated and thinking that it would be much better to make my own game, one where other people could play and have fun. Dayrinni and I talked about the idea and began building a fantasy world with simple (and broken) mechanics that were similar to video games we’d played, movies we’d watched and things we thought would be cool to see in action.

Needless to say, those early incarnations were VERY bad in terms of design and mechanics, but the seed was planted and the framework was built. All it needed was a little love and care, and after twenty-five years of friendship, Dayrinni and I are still working on that process.

ATS started as a game called “The World of Gaia.” Later, it evolved into “Magical Seasons” and finally “A Tempest Season.” The game had a failed sequel, “Shattered Ages,” which introduced isometric art and a visual world to explore. It was a neat endeavor, but it was very time consuming. Both Dayrinni and I learned a lot from our failed experience with “Shattered Ages” and our experience with “A Tempest Season,” the first time it was in MUD format. We’re hoping to take what we’ve learned and apply it to this new incarnation of ATS to make a richer and more entertaining experience.

We encourage you to please visit our forums to help us build a community of gamers, and we implore you to read the lore on our website, which is in the process of being updated.

Ultimately, we want you to have a good experience, and we want you to have fun. So come join us this July as we re-explore the world of Eihydia! See you there!!!